Spotify retaliates against artists who choose to give "exclusive windows" to streaming rivals like Apple Music and Tidal, according to reports by Bloomberg and The New York Times.

Spotify has previously called exclusives bad for artists and bad for listeners.

Sources told Bloomberg that artists have been informed by Spotify that, if they give exclusives to competitors, their songs won't appear on "featured playlists" once they do hit Spotify. Exclusive windows are normally given for one or two weeks.

Beyond that, artists told Bloomberg they'd noticed their songs were "buried" in Spotify's search rankings, suggesting Spotify is messing with its own algorithm to punish them for giving favor to competitors. Spotify told Business Insider that the claim it buries search results is "unequivocally false."

The end of exclusives

Exclusives have been central to the strategies of Spotify competitors Apple Music and Tidal, who have grabbed them from the likes of Kanye West, Chance the Rapper, and Frank Ocean. But Spotify, the clear leader of the market at almost 40 million paid subscribers, hasn't really used them (Apple Music announced 15 million subscribers in June).

But Spotify might not have to rage against exclusives for much longer, both in the press and with artists. Universal's CEO reportedly sent a memo to stop giving anyone — Spotify, Apple Music, and so on — long-term exclusives. This is big news, considering Universal is a major label that has provided Apple Music with many of its blockbuster exclusives, like Drake, Bloomberg notes.

Perhaps the exclusive era is coming to an end.

SEE ALSO: Stranger Things' is one of Netflix's biggest hits

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Netflix just dropped a new 'Luke Cage' trailer and it looks incredible

In the time leading up to the March 2017 release of "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," Nintendo has been showing off some new footage of the open-world game on social media.

Unlike other "Legend of Zelda" games, "Breath of the Wild" has a much larger focus on exploration and survival, which means Link will need some new tools at his disposal to keep himself alive. These new videos are starting to paint a clearer picture of exactly how those tools will be used.

The first, shared Wednesday, focuses on the weapons Link will be able to use in hand-to-hand combat, like a giant axe, some kind of magic wand that shoots fireballs, and the ripped-off arm of a skeleton — real nice, Link.

Of course, he'll also be able to wield his trademark sword and shield.

Another video shared Wednesday breaks down the different kind of runes Link can use.

Think of these as more utilitarian items: one lets Link freeze patches of water to help him cross large lakes on foot, another is a super-powerful magnet that lets him retrieve treasure chests from far-off places, and the last is a sort of magically self-regenerating bomb that can be used over and over again.

Finally, on Friday, Nintendo shared a video that showcases the different arrow types Link will be able to use, including Fire, Ice, and Bomb.

Swapping between these types of arrows on the fly looks to be pretty seamless, so you'll be able to freeze an enemy in its tracks, and then blow it to smithereens with a bomb arrow.

We saw similar footage of "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" back in June at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, but it looks like Nintendo is eager to show off the progress it's made in those few months.

"Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" will launch alongside Nintendo's mysterious new console, currently codenamed "NX." It will also release at that time for Nintendo's current console, the Wii U.

SEE ALSO: The new 'Legend of Zelda' gets rid of the worst thing about the series

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The best way to use incense in 'Pokémon GO'

The "Pokémon Go" craze may have peaked, but the mobile game is still ridiculously popular.

Popular enough that there are still regular reports of hundreds of people stampeding in search of a Snorlax. Someone was killed just last week in Japan by a driver who admitted to playing "Pokémon Go" while driving.

Popular enough that it's still the biggest moneymaker in mobile gaming right now. It's the number one grossing game on Google Play, as well as the iTunes App Store (according to App Annie).

The recent reports of its imminent decline miss several key points, says Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad. 

"Pokémon Go" exploded in popularity, and rapidly launched in many countries. It's the fastest downloaded anything on both iPhone and Android. That puts the game into a rare category of mega-hit. Simply put: the kind of user numbers that "Pokémon Go" initially enjoyed are unsustainable. Remember when it had more users than Twitter? That was never going to last.

The tapering off of those record-setting, astronomic numbers is entirely expected. Ahmad described the effect as, "what one would expect when looking at [daily active user] numbers, that the number will decrease over time and begin to level out at a much lower number."

Indeed, that's exactly what the data shows:

If anything, the strangest part of this chart is the front — where the game goes from unknown to 50 million users in one month. "The game achieved record revenue figures in its first month, higher than that of 'Clash Royale' (the previous record holder)," says Ahmad. "Pokémon Go" is the fastest game to hit 50 million installs on the Google Play store (by a huge margin), and already has more than 100 million installs through Google Play." 

Something particularly interesting that this chart demonstrates is how many people are still playing "Pokémon Go." If I'm being honest, I'm not one of those folks — I opened it this morning for the first time in several weeks, and only because I was writing about the game. And I'm less likely these days to see a gaggle of people hanging around the front of my local park battling for control of the Gym.

But as of August 18, over 40 million people are still actively playing "Pokémon Go," according to SurveyMonkey Intelligence. Another estimate, published by Bloomberg, puts the game at over 30 million users — "a number most mobile games will never reach," Ahmad pointed out. 

"Most mobile games will be lucky to retain 50% of their users after the first month. A game that is able to retain 50% of its users after one month is a game that is doing considerably better than the average game, and one that shows it’s doing well," he added. 

Point being: The decline in "Pokémon Go" users is normal, not indicative of a fad. If anything, the huge number of users one month in shows that the game has staying power.

As Ahmad put it: "Some have noted that the decline in [users] shows the game is a fad, but it doesn’t show that at all. Instead the decline is normal, and the decline is not as sharp as the average mobile game would be after one month."

That's before launching in China, the largest mobile games market in the world, or South Korea (the fourth largest). The phenomenon may be over, but "Pokémon Go" continues to dominate as reigning king of the charts on both iPhone and Android.

SEE ALSO: 'Pokémon Go' still isn't available in the biggest mobile game market in the world — here's why

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A restaurant's serving Pokemon burgers – but there's a twist when you buy one

Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars, recently told TMZ that Nate Parker's rape accusation shouldn't stop moviegoers from seeing his upcoming film "The Birth of a Nation."

"With the issue of the movie, the important thing is for people to see it and enjoy the film, be impressed by the film," Isaacs said. "I think that is what is very important. People need to see this movie."

Parker was charged with rape while he was a student at Penn State University. He was acquitted of the charges in 2001, but the controversy surfaced again recently when reports came out that the woman who accused Parker of raping her had committed suicide at the age of 30. 

Isaacs told TMZ that people should judge the film on the basis of its own merit and not based on Parker's rape allegations, which she referred to as "one issue, that’s his personal issue."

Parker's film about Nat Turner's slave rebellion has been getting early Oscar attention since it won the grand jury and audience prizes at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Though Isaacs hasn't seen the film, she insists that audiences "need to see" it.

"I know just by the conversation that has gone on since Sundance that it’s clearly a movie that filmgoers should go and see," Isaacs said. "My belief is that people need to see the movie and judge the movie."

"The Birth of a Nation" opens in theaters on October 7. 

Watch Isaacs speak with TMZ below:

SEE ALSO: Director of 'The Birth of a Nation' on rape charge from his past: 'I have never run from this'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 things you missed in the new Star Wars Rogue One trailer

Now that new music comes out every Friday — though not always on every streaming service — it can be hard to know where to find the next great song.

To help you out, Business Insider compiles this rundown of the best new music you can stream right now.

This week, The Weeknd appeared on a new song from Norwegian producer Cashmere Cat, and Led Zeppelin unearthed a previously unreleased song from 1969. 

Check out this week's best new songs:

SEE ALSO: The best new songs from the week of August 19

MORE GREAT MUSIC: Frank Ocean reveals his 50 favorite songs of all time

Led Zeppelin — "Sunshine Woman"

Led Zeppelin's lo-fi gem "Sunshine Woman" is a previously unreleased recording from their upcoming "The Complete BBC Sessions" album. The Guardian has said the track is "likely the best recording you will ever find of what might be the last previously unheard complete Zeppelin song to get an official release." 

RAW Embed

GoldLink — "Fall in Love"

GoldLink, a rapper and self-proclaimed "future bounce" artist, released his best and most infectious single to date with "Fall in Love." The Kaytranada and BadBadNotGood coproduced track sounds like it could have been composed by '80s funk icon Rick James. 

RAW Embed

Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam — "When the Truth Is..."

The latest single from the fantastic new duo of Hamilton Leithauser (The Walkmen) and Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend), "When the Truth Is..." incorporates elements of doo-wop and soul for a superb, Vampire Weekend-style waltz track. 

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/aLDS7exP36Y
Width: 800px
Height: 380px

Speculation that Disney is going to buy Vice has placed the forward-thinking media company under new scrutiny, especially its new cable channel, Viceland.

Disney — which is currently Vice's largest outside investor, and whose joint TV venture with Hearst, A+E Networks, houses Viceland — seeks to reach more young men. And Vice seems to be just the means it can use to get them.

But new ratings information provided by The Wall Street Journal earlier this week has painted a dreary picture of the state of Viceland. According to the newspaper, the cable channel averaged 45,000 adult viewers under the age of 50, the demographic most desired by advertisers, in July.

Business Insider obtained the comparable Nielsen ratings for H2, which was about 92,000 adults under 50. That represents 51% less viewers in the demo than H2, the channel Viceland replaced.

On the surface, this seems like a clear-cut failure for Vice's first major TV channel outing. But actually, there's more to the story.

SEE ALSO: Early ratings estimates for Vice's new TV channel are out, and they don't look good

DON'T MISS: The 6 biggest things that are shaking up the TV industry right now

It's unfair to compare 6-month-old Viceland viewership to that of 5-year-old H2.

Question: Would you ever punish a six-month-old child for not being as tall as a five-year-old? Clearly, no. H2 had about five years to build its audience. It's illogical to believe that six-month-old Viceland could do the same.

Still, didn't Viceland inherit H2's viewers?

You may be thinking that Viceland actually had a head-start in the numbers with H2's audience. That would make sense if Viceland was aimed at the same viewers. Don't forget, H2's audience steered older and A+E Networks was aiming for a younger audience with Viceland. So in the process, Viceland would probably lose audience, while trying to attract younger viewers to the channel.

The plan seems to be working. According to Wall Street Journal's reported numbers, Viceland's viewership averages 17 years younger than H2's viewers. That's pretty significant.

Live TV viewing isn't exactly the Millennial style.

Finally, Viceland could be the first cable channel ever to consider cable as one of the platforms used to view its programming from its inception. As a channel geared toward younger viewers and in the age of cable cord-cutting, it hopes to appeal to delayed viewing via DVR and other online platforms. In that case, ratings aren't exactly its main measure of success, it's just one part of the equation.

A+E Networks requested that Nielsen abstain from measuring Viceland's ratings for its first six months. With just days to go, a more complete ratings picture will become available. But even then, how much does that really matter?

Frank DiMatteo, author of The President Street Boys: Growing Up Mafia, was a close associate of the Gallo crime family in Brooklyn, New York and also drove getaway cars for the Mafia. He explains what "The Sopranos" got right. 

 Follow BI Video: On Twitter

Join the conversation about this story »

The MTV Video Music Awards have always been a stage for unpredictable and iconic pop-music moments.

Consistently drawing in the biggest names in the industry, the show has produced some of music's most memorable live TV performances since it began in 1984 — for better and for worse.

With the 2016 MTV VMAs airing on Sunday, we're looking back at the most noteworthy VMA performances since the show's inception. 

With moments like Michael Jackson's excellent career medley in 1995 and Britney Spears singing "I'm a Slave 4 U" with a giant snake around her neck in 2001, the VMAs have been dependably compelling for decades.

Check out our chronological list of the 15 most memorable VMA performances:

SEE ALSO: How Britney Spears lost control of her life 8 years ago and then made an incredible career comeback

1984: Madonna — "Like a Virgin"

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/AFiwFKDyp8A
Width: 800px
Height: 380px

Madonna kicked off the first ever MTV VMAs with a performance of her 1984 hit "Like a Virgin." According to Billboard, the 26-year-old pop star originally wanted to sing next to a bengal tiger, but she instead emerged from a 17-foot-tall cake to perform the song. 

1989: Bon Jovi — "Livin' on a Prayer / Wanted Dead or Alive"

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/ruT9zTYGtgE
Width: 800px
Height: 400px

Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora's acoustic renditions of two of their band's biggest hits on the 1989 VMAs are relatively tame compared to the rest of this list, but the performance was credited for inspiring MTV's popular "Unplugged" series, according to Uproxx. 

1992: Nirvana — "Lithium"

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/OWwT1QGApMg
Width: 800px
Height: 380px

Nirvana's raucous performance of their "Nevermind" single "Lithium" began controversially with the opening chords of their yet-to-be-released 1993 song "Rape Me." Toward the end, bassist Krist Noveselic threw his instrument in the air, and it landed on his face. 

So, you've been playing "Pokémon GO" and you've crested level five. Congrats! You can now join one of the three teams in the game (GO TEAM VALOR WOOOOO!) and start battling in gyms. This is, in so many words, where the real game begins. 

So, uh, how do you battle? What do those gym levels mean? And what happens when you go to a gym that's part of your team? 

We've got answers to all that and more!

SEE ALSO: The Pokémon Go peak is over, but the game is still on top

First things first: Locate your local gym.

If you've spent any time playing "Pokémon Go," you've almost certainly seen your local gym. Gyms are crucial in the world of Pokémon, because they're where trainers (players) go to train their Pokémon. In the world of "Pokémon Go," they're just as crucial for the same reason.

There is, of course, a twist: In "Pokémon Go" you choose one of three teams (Valor, Instinct, or Mystic), which is tied to the gyms you take over. If you see a greyed out gym on your "Pokémon GO" map, that's an unclaimed gym that you can simply walk up to (in real life) that you can then claim for whatever team you belong to.

But, at this point, most gyms are claimed.

Go to a friendly gym to practice battling Pokémon before the real thing.

Don't waste your precious time fighting Pokémon that you can't beat. If your best Pokémon has a lower CP rating (combat power — we'll explain more later), you'll almost certainly lose the fight. Train up your Pokémon first by going to a gym that your team already owns and competing in friendly battles. You'll learn the ins and outs of battling and get something from it (XP for leveling up). Huzzah!

As a bonus, your team gets "Prestige" from your battle, which is how gyms become higher level. In so many words, by taking on friendly matches at a gym your team already controls, you're making that gym even stronger against future attacks from rival teams!

Review the gym: Know what you're getting into.

So, you've walked to a gym and you're thinking about battling. Great! Now what do all these stats and numbers and stuff mean?

"World of Warcraft" has made a genuine cultural impact since its launch in 2004, inspiring everything from a "South Park" episode to the recently-released Hollywood movie adaptation. But there are still countless people who have never played the smash-hit online game.

With its next expansion, "World of Warcraft: Legion," set to launch on August 30, you might be wondering: should I jump in? What's so great about this game that people have been playing for 12 years? 

Here are just a few of the reasons why "World of Warcraft" is so huge:

SEE ALSO: 5 reasons why people love 'Metal Gear Solid'

It took one of the most hardcore genres around and made it accessible

In case you weren't sure, "World of Warcraft" is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG for short. That means it takes place in a huge, persistent world where players run around and do quests with each other, level up, collect loot and maybe even fight each other.

Before "World of Warcraft" came along, the most popular MMORPGs were games like "EverQuest," which were not especially welcoming to new players, comparatively. It was a different time, so expectations were different.

"World of Warcraft" did a better job of explaining the more arcane aspects of the genre and easing newcomers in, even if it wasn't perfect. It's actually a much more friendly game now than it was at launch, too. This is a great time to jump in.

Its world is enormous, varied, and a joy to explore — and it keeps evolving

The original release of the game had two gigantic continents for players to explore, all based on the "Warcraft" series of computer strategy games. Each of its numerous expansion packs has added another sizable landmass, meaning there's a whole lot to see out there.

The "Warcraft" fantasy universe draws inspiration from pretty much every other fantasy universe, so there's a ton of variety around every corner. One playable race lives in a huge, crashed spaceship, while another is a race of zombies that lives in the sewers underneath an abandoned city.

There are also intelligent, bipedal cows and martial artist pandas to go along with your generic humans and orcs. The game's stellar art direction helps bring all of these different races and their respective homelands to life.

It's designed to be as addictive as possible

"World of Warcraft" requires a paid subscription to play, meaning it's designed to keep you playing as long as possible. That may sound like a negative thing, but it's just honesty, and they do it very well.

From the minute you start playing, the game constantly dangles a carrot on a stick in front of you. It could be a new ability, a powerful sword, or a cool mechanical chicken to ride on.

Whatever it is, it's always just attainable enough that you'll say "just one more quest before bed!" Before you know it, it's 3:00 in the morning. That's how "World of Warcraft" goes.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was just named the highest-paid actor in the world. According to Forbes, the former WWE star makes $64.5 million per year, beating out the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Brad Pitt.

One of the hardest working people in show business, Johnson stars in movies and TV shows, runs his own production company, and gets a few extra bucks from endorsements. Yet, the actor also knows how to enjoy himself and spend his hard-earned cash.

Here's how The Rock spends his millions.

Forbes named Johnson the world's highest-paid actor for 2016 with a whopping $64.5 million a year. The former wrestler works hard for his millions.

Source: Forbes

Johnson is a box-office juggernaut. Past successes have led to him commanding bigger pay days for upcoming films.

A few recent hits include:

"Furious 7" (2015):$1.5 billion
"San Andreas" (2015):$474 million
"Fast & Furious 6" (2013): $788.7 million

Source: Forbes

His most recent film, "Central Intelligence," grossed $210.3 million worldwide.

Source: Box Office Mojo

Say what you will about people watching other people play video games live. The numbers don't lie. 

• 1.7 million people broadcast game streams every month on the largest streaming game service, Amazon-owned Twitch, according to data from 2015.
• An average 100 million people tune in to those streams. For comparison, there are just over 40 million PlayStation 4 consoles in the wild.
• Amazon thought Twitch was impressive enough that it bought the company for just shy of $1 billion back in 2014.

Twitch is available on every game console, to either watch games played or to broadcast your own. It's available on phones, tablets, computers, and set-top boxes like the Apple TV. It's the standard broadcast network of eSports tournaments the world over. As an added bonus, it's got the might of Amazon behind it. Who could challenge that?

Who indeed:

Nearly one quarter of the Earth's human population, 1.6 billion people, uses Facebook. When the company makes even a small change to its service — The Social Network — it can be tremendously impactful.

In the case of Facebook Live, a tool that enables any Facebook user to instantly live stream their life from their phone, Facebook made a huge change. Suddenly, there are notifications from friends, publications, celebrities, and anyone else you're connected to on Facebook (there's a way to turn that off). They're somewhere! Doing something! Right now! And you can watch it — live!

In June, Facebook announced a partnership with gaming powerhouse Blizzard Entertainment: All of Blizzard's games, from "World of Warcraft" to "Diablo 3" to "Hearthstone" to "Overwatch" are instantly streamable — live! — on Facebook Live.

You push a button, there's a short countdown (3....2....1), and you're off to the races, livestreaming your game directly to Facebook in high-resolution.

The service is available starting right now, Blizzard announced on Friday. The service was unveiled with this video on — where else? — Blizzard's Facebook page:

It's easy to imagine just such a service on everything from your iPhone to that PlayStation 4 in the living room.

Facebook agrees.

"Imagine every game that people are playing, regardless of platform, they have the opportunity to do one-button 'Go Live' to Facebook. That would be pretty awesome!" Facebook's director of games partnerships, Leo Olebe, told Business Insider in an interview earlier this year. 

So we pushed. Is Facebook making that concept a reality?

"Yes, yes. It is," he told us. "Gamers are everywhere. They're on every different device, they're playing any time, and we want to be where gamers are."

Creating the future of game streaming on Facebook

Olebe is responsible for the partnership with Blizzard Entertainment, and says he and his team are "talking to developers just about every day."

What Facebook's doing with Blizzard is the first truly easy solution for streaming games directly to the largest social network in the world, and it's a relatively quick rollout when viewed in the context of Facebook's larger Live push.

Facebook Live initially went public last summer, but only for "Public Figures" (like Beyoncé and Mark Zuckerberg). Private citizens — normal people like you and me and Chewbacca Mom — only got access in January 2016. Even then, it was still limited to "Point your phone at something and make a video. Live!"

But then Facebook did something very smart: It released what are called "APIs," which are a means for more professional production to be broadcast on Facebook. Suddenly you've got publications like, say, Business Insider, figuring out how to stream video games directly to Facebook. 

Our setup requires a game capture box, an expensive piece of software, several cameras, mics, and lights, dozens of wires and adapters, an audio mixing board, and someone with experience operating a live internet broadcast (preferably). 

If you're a normal person who doesn't work at a large publication, it's a big hassle. That hassle is something Olebe wants Facebook to solve.

"If we can make it easier — democratize, if you will — the ability for people to go live on Facebook, that's a great thing," he said. "We're working on tools and products and services internally to really enhance Live, and we're working on those things with [game] developers and publishers from around the world."

On the PlayStation 4, there's a button on the front of the controller that says "Share." When you push it, you're whisked to a screen that asks you where you'd like to share your games. Perhaps you'd like to upload a clip to Facebook? Perhaps you'd like to livestream a game directly to Twitch or YouTube? 

There is no such option for Facebook Live. Nor does such an option exist with iPhone games, or PC games. And that's exactly what Facebook will need to solve if it wants to court the hundreds of millions of people watching and streaming games. 

Olebe knows that, and sympathizes with the current situation. He insists on the importance of getting the product out, getting feedback, iterating based on that feedback, and growing. Here's the long-term view, from Olebe himself:

"It's absolutely in our interest, and yes, the Blizzard partnership is a step down this road, to make it as easy as possible. If you're going live from your mobile phone, you go on your Facebook page and you hit "Go Live." And it's like 3, 2, 1 and you're now live. There is a future where you have that similar type of experience but for gameplay. And so in this case, the implementation isn't live yet, but they're literally inputting a "Go Live" button into Battle.net and into Blizzard games. So you'll be playing "Overwatch," and you'll be able to just hit the "Go Live" button and it'll go live to your Facebook feed because you've used Facebook Login — you've connected your Facebook account — and now you hit the "Go Live" button and — boom! — your gameplay is being streamed to Facebook."

With 1.6 billion users, the best video player on the internet, and a partnership with one of the world's most successful game studios, Facebook is sending a direct message to Amazon's Twitch: Watch out. 

Olebe repeatedly reminded me during the interview that Facebook already commands an audience of "650 million people," who are "either playing games on Facebook or with Facebook." The number includes people playing Facebook-based games, as well as the millions of people connecting to Facebook using the Login service, which lets you use your Facebook account to sign into services and games ranging from the world's most popular game console (the PlayStation 4) to one of the world's most popular games ("League of Legends"). 

Can Facebook turn all of those 650 million people into livestream video game watchers? Perhaps, but even if Facebook can't, a fraction of that number could easily best the existing heavy: Twitch. Olebe wouldn't tell us when its "Go Live" functionality will arrive in Blizzard's games (let alone on something like the PlayStation 4), but at the rate Facebook is already moving on live video, expect live video games to invade your social feed more and more as the year goes on.

You might be watching or, better yet, streaming your own games before you know it. That's the whole point!

As Olebe told us, "The idea that Facebook can be a place where people share the games that they love is, in my mind, a pretty compelling thing."

SEE ALSO: Facebook is about to take on gaming's 800-pound gorilla

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here’s how to see what Facebook thinks of your political views

"Stranger Things," Netflix's newest hit original series, is dripping with inspiration from all things 1980's, from Steven Spielberg to Stephen King.

In addition to the time period itself, the series creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, were heavily influenced by video games like "Silent Hill," "The Last of Us," and "Dark Souls." They even said they've toyed around with the idea of developing a video game to bridge the gap between the first and second seasons.

Well, some folks over at Infamous Quests, a small independent game studio, took that idea and ran with it, re-creating a scene from "Stranger Things" in the style of a point-and-click adventure game, like "Monkey Island."

The result is awesome:

It's just a small peak into what a full-fledged "Stranger Things" game could be, described by the team at Infamous Quests as "a small labor of love."

The playable scene even caught the attention of David Harbour, the actor who plays Police Chief Jim Hopper. He jokingly tweeted that he'd be applying for a job at Infamous Quests "if the acting thing stops working," but after the popularity of the first season of "Stranger Things," I have a hunch that won't be necessary.

You can download the demo for free on any PC, Mac, or Linux computer.

H/T Paste

SEE ALSO: 'Stranger Things' is one of Netflix's biggest hits — here's how it ranks in popularity next to Netflix's other shows

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The iPhone 7 is hitting stores on September 23 — here's what you're getting

Pokémon Go is a smash hit on Android and iPhone, but there's no version at all for Microsoft's struggling Windows 10 Mobile, leaving some would-be players in the cold.

And given that Windows 10 Mobile's market share is well under 1% of all smartphones globally, there's not a lot of incentive for game developer Niantic to ever make one. 

Fortunately for those few, proud Windows 10 Mobile phone owners, there is an option: "PoGo-UWP," a totally unsanctioned and unauthorized effort to bring the Pokémon Go phenomenon to Windows 10, spearheaded by a developer named Stefano Tenuta. 

On the project's GitHub Wiki page, Tenuta gives three main reasons for starting the PoGo-UWP project: First, "because learning new things is always cool." Second, "because it could be done." But third, and best of all: "Because Microsoft rejected my job application saying that I wasn't showing enough 'passion', and this proves them wrong :)"

"Being rejected is always a good source for motivations, and proving that I’m better than what they thought is one of them," Tenuta tells Business Insider.

Tenuta tells Business Insider that his unofficial PoGo-UWP app has had 50,000 unique users opening the app a combined 1.5 million times in the month or so since it was first released. That's a fraction of the many millions of players on the official Pokémon Go app for iPhone and Android, but it's impressive for a niche passion project.

The "UWP" part of the name refers to "Universal Windows Platform," Microsoft's new standard for apps that can run on desktops, tablets, and mobile phones alike. That means that if you really wanted to, you could use PoGo-UWP to play Pokémon Go on your Windows 10 PC, too.

Essentially, PoGo-UWP is a donation-funded version of the familiar Pokémon Go app rebuilt from the ground up for Windows 10, one feature at a time. A version of the game that went live on Friday added the Pokédex and the ability to see the items you're carrying. It's not perfect, but it works.

It connects to the main Pokémon Go servers, so you can play with your friends on Android and iPhone. Just be advised before we go any further that Niantic has been cracking down on the use of unauthorized Pokémon Go tools, and using PoGo-UWP could get your account banned from the game as a cheater.

Here's a look at the first version of the game in action. It's apparently come a little ways since this video was uploaded:

Passion project

Tenuta says that he got the inspiration from a fan-made petition going around the internet begging Niantic to bring Pokémon Go to Windows 10 Mobile. That petition had 80,000 signatures when Tenuta saw it, and it gave him the spark of an idea. Plus, as an independent app developer, he thought it might give him some visibility. 

He spent a day doing technical tests to make sure it was possible, and off he went.

The first, extremely basic version of PoGo-UWP dropped at the end of July. On the project's GitHub page, Tenuta says that he was soon bombarded with feature requests, questions, and bug reports, so much so that he ended up spending "the following 3 days working for 24 hours straight to solve them and make people happy."

But just shy of two weeks ago, Tenuta writes, he got help in the form of a team of experienced volunteers willing to donate their time to helping him build the project. Which means that lots more features are coming, bringing it just a little bit closer to the original Pokémon Go app with each update. 

"I honestly didn’t expect such help from people, but I’m really glad that they’re here because I couldn’t have done this without them," Tenuta says.

Don't hold your breath, though, for the game's signature augmented-reality camera mode, or for three-dimensional models of each monster. "I'm just a single dev, I'm not Niantic," Tenuta writes.

On that subject, though, he says he's not terribly worried about Niantic shutting his project down, even though it would be entirely within its rights to do so. Unlike most third-party Pokémon Go apps, PoGo-UWP isn't designed to give its users an unfair edge — it's just trying to let Windows 10 Mobile users in on the fun. 

"This means that we’re not harming anyone with this project, but we’re giving more users the chance to play their game, and everyone of these users may be a potential customer for their in-app purchases, so this can be a win-win situation for both of us," Tenuta says.

How to use it

Okay, I'll be honest with you: I don't have a Windows 10 Mobile phone handy, so I tried installing it on a Surface Book.

Even knowing it's more for phones than laptops, the process of getting PoGo-UWP running was a huge pain, requiring messing with a lot of settings related to installing unofficial apps. Even once I got it running, it was glitchy and unreliable. But, hey, for a free, volunteer-driven project, it ain't bad. 

If you want to give it a shot, first and foremost, you need to have or create an account for the game. Second, you need access to an iPhone or Android phone the first time you load up the game, just to select your first Pokémon, since you can't do that from PoGo-UWP. If you don't have one, web service Bluestacks can simulate the game in the web browser for you on PC well enough to get started. 

Then, you can grab PoGo-UWP itself, per Tenuta's landing page for the latest version. If you're using it on a phone, you really just need to copy over the file and open it. If you're using it on a PC, you need to install a "certificate" file first, which is where I ran into trouble, but enough random fiddling (not advised) made it work just fine.

And then, you're off to the world of Pokémon Go. Just know that if it doesn't work exactly right, there are a lot of known issues that Tenuta and his team are working on, so have some patience.

SEE ALSO: Inside Building 87, Microsoft's hidden mad science laboratory

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A restaurant's serving Pokemon burgers – but there's a twist when you buy one

With television taking over for film as the creative center of Hollywood, more and more huge stars are signing on to small-screen projects.

We've already seen Halle Berry, Matthew McConaughey, Glenn Close, Kevin Costner, Laura Dern, Kevin Spacey, Viola Davis, and many more movie stars on TV shows. Well, that list just keeps getting bigger.

For fall 2016, cinema's leading men and ladies Anthony Hopkins, Isabella Rossellini, and Dermot Mulroney join talent from TV's past golden ages (Ted Danson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kiefer Sutherland) for the next season's roster of talent.

Here's a look at the 21 biggest stars of this year's fall TV season:

SEE ALSO: The 10 best and worst TV shows this summer

DON'T MISS: The 6 biggest things that are shaking up the TV industry right now

Anthony Hopkins, "Westworld" (HBO)

Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins has a long list of cinematic successes, including "Silence of the Lambs," "Nixon," and "Remains of the Day."

HBO's "Westworld," which hopes to be the network's next dramatic hit, is an adaptation of the 1973 Michael Crichton movie of the same name. Hopkins plays the brilliant creative director of an amusement park of sorts called Westworld.

Mandy Moore, "This Is Us" (NBC)

Mandy Moore first found fame as a pop star in the late '90s. She then segued her career into acting, getting rave reviews for her role in the romantic drama "A Walk to Remember" in 2002. She also starred in the indie hit "Saved!"

On "This Is Us," Moore plays a woman who finds herself pregnant with triplets.

Ted Danson, "The Good Place" (NBC)

After starring on the hit '80s sitcom "Cheers," Danson went on to more TV roles with "CSI," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Damages," and "Bored to Death."

Danson plays Kristen Bell's heavenly mentor on NBC's "The Good Place."

Netflix is currently in production on season two of its true-crime hit, "Making a Murderer."

The docuseries follows Steven Avery, a man who had been cleared of a sexual assault charge after spending 18 years in prison.

Free and with a $36 million lawsuit pending against Wisconsin's Manitowoc County, Avery suddenly found himself at the center of the investigation into the 2005 murder of photographer Teresa Halbach.

Even worse, his teen nephew, Brendan Dassey, was accused of helping.

In the end, both Avery and Dassey were given life sentences for Halbach's murder.

Since "Murderer" was released in December 2015, many people have come away with their own takes and theories on the case. And there have been a couple major developments.

Kathleen Zellner, a defense attorney whose work has so far led to the overturning of wrongful convictions for 17 people, took on Avery's case earlier this year. She has expressed nothing but confidence that she can get Avery freed.

And Dassey's conviction was recently overturned. A federal judge in Milwaukee ruled that Dassey's constitutional rights were violated when authorities questioned him without an adult present.

All this amounts to several loose ends that need to be tied up.

Here are six questions that need to be answered on "Making a Murderer" season two:

SEE ALSO: 'Making a Murderer' convict Steven Avery's lawyer says she has a new suspect for the murder

DON'T MISS: Everything you need to know about 'Making a Murderer' if you don't want to spend 10 hours watching

How will Brendan Dassey's overturned conviction play out for Steven Avery?

The recent overturning of Dassey's murder conviction has revived the attention to Avery's conviction. But how will it play out for Avery? Will Dassey become a trial witness for his uncle? Or will Avery's attorney want to distance his case from Dassey's?

Also, there's still a chance that the state will refile charges against Dassey. Does that mean season two will once again feature Dassey's trial?

Who is new defense attorney Kathleen Zellner's alternate suspect?

During the trial and in the wake of the success of "Making a Murderer," several possible alternate suspects in the Halbach murder have been discussed in the media and fan forums. They've included Avery family members, Halbach's ex-boyfriend, and even a serial killer known for pinning his murders on others.

In March, Zellner said she was close to identifying alternate suspects among key people who knew the victim. Currently, Zellner says that she has a very good lead on an alternate suspect. Will that pan out?

Will new tests uncover that evidence was planted?

Since choosing to represent Avery, Zellner has been using new tests on the alleged crime scene and the evidence in the case. She hasn't established whether earlier tests have come up with anything that would help Avery's case, and recently told The New York Times that she's embarking on more, with results coming back within 60 days.

Nonetheless, she still feels fairly certain her defense team will come up with something.

"It may not all be successful, but I believe if even one bit of evidence is planted, the conviction is going to be vacated," she told The Times.

Will any of the tests prove that evidence was planted, as many "Making a Murderer" fans suspect, or is she bluffing?

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been on an incredible run of late and things have only gotten better. Forbes has now named him the highest-paid actor in the world with $64.5 million earned in the past year.

Thanks to franchises like "Fast and the Furious" and "San Andreas," his lifetime worldwide box-office gross is over $6 billion, and coming up he's got a "Baywatch" movie and "Jumanji" sequel.

He's also stepping into the superhero world in the near future as he's signed on to be Doc Savage.

That's not to mention his other endeavors like a YouTube channel, a production company, and endorsement deals.

Here we look back on the incredible career of "The Rock," from a washed-up football player with only $7 to his name to becoming the highest-paid actor in the world.

Frank Pallotta and Mallory Schlossberg contributed to an earlier version of this story.

SEE ALSO: Here's the most popular music artist in every state, according to Pandora

Before he was "The Rock," Dwayne Johnson was born on May 2, 1972, in Hayward, California.

Source: Biography

Wrestling is in Johnson's blood. His father, Rocky "Soul Man" Johnson, was a member of the first African-American tag-team champions, and his grandfather Peter Maivia was one of the first Samoan wrestlers.

Source: YouTube

Johnson didn't go straight to wrestling. His first sport was football. After starring in high school, he played in college for the Miami Hurricanes. Over his tenure at the University of Miami, Johnson started just once but appeared in 39 games and had 77 tackles, and he was a part of the 1991 national championship team.

Source: ESPN

When Beyoncé doesn't win awards at the Video Music Awards, it's usually the source of drama. But during the 2016 VMAs, there's one award she's almost guaranteed to win — especially since MTV hasn't given this award out for 25 years. 

As Uproxx's Banksy Gonzales points out, Sunday's VMAs are the first show since 1991 where MTV is handing out the award for Best Long Form Video. During the early '90s ceremony, Madonna bested Aerosmith, Peter Gabriel, and R.E.M. when she took home the Moonman for "The Immaculate Collection."

It was the only year that the network awarded the Best Long Form Video trophy ... until now. 

It's been rechristened Breakthrough Long Form Video, though it's essentially the same award. Why did it disappear for a quarter-century?

The executive producer of the VMAs, Jesse Ignjatovic, told MTV News that they've been "working for years" on bringing the award back.

MTV, he says, "is always trying to stay on the cusp and reflect culture and what artists are doing."

Okay, but let's be honest — it's because of Beyoncé. 

Beyoncé's "Lemonade" is the clear frontrunner. The landmark release is going up against the long form videos for Justin Bieber's "PURPOSE: The Movement," Troye Sivan's "Blue Neighbourhood Trilogy," Florence + The Machine's "The Odyssey," and Chris Brown's "Royalty."

None of those videos stands a chance against Beyoncé, and I'll eat my hat if I'm wrong. The award was brought back to honour Queen Bey, and rightfully so. "Lemonade" was a triumph. 

Will another 25 years go by before MTV gives out another Moonman for Best Long Form Video/Breakthrough Long Form Video? Perhaps. But full-length music videos are becoming more and more common, and artists and directors are raising the bar. It would be nice to see the VMAs continue to award them for their efforts — even if Bey isn't one of the nominees next time. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 16-year-old Beyoncé basically predicted her own future

The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards are underway, and some of the biggest names in the music industry and entertainment world have made appearances on the red carpet of the VMAs pre-show.

Beyoncé, Kanye West, and Britney Spears were among the many stars who posed for photographers outside of Madison Square Garden in New York City, where this year's show is taking place. 

Check out the biggest stars of the 2016 VMAs red carpet below:

Beyoncé and her daughter, Blue Ivy

Diddy

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian

The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards kicked off Sunday night with a performance by this year's Video Vangaurd Award winner, Rihanna.

The first of four performances by the Grammy winner was a mix of her greatest hits, from "Only Girl in the World" to "Where Have You Been." She and her dancers were dressed in all pink.

We can't wait to see what else she has in store for us this evening. Apparently she's performing several times throughout the show, according to the announcers.

Watch the performance below:

SEE ALSO: How Britney Spears makes and spends her millions

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 things you missed in the new Star Wars Rogue One trailer